BAZZA AT LONG BEACH

How Barry Sheene took his factory RG500 to a California street race in ’77

‘SHEENE QUALIFIED ON POLE, BUT HAD TO BE CONTENT WITH THIRD PLACE’

After winning the opening Grand Prix of the 1977 season in Venezuela, reigning 500cc World Champion Barry Sheene stopped off on the way home to race in the 76.7-mile Long Beach Invitation Grand Prix in California. The race was held on a demanding 2.02-mile road course that included 12 hairpin turns and some major elevation changes in the dipping, diving boulevards of the sea port city. The bike race formed a supporting event to the Long Beach Formula One Grand Prix. Motorcycles had featured on the 1976 programme as a demonstration event with riders on works Kawasakis – but this time it was racing for real, with Sheene lined up against the cream of the American crop.

The British bike racer, along with World Formula One champion James Hunt and Beatle George Harrison, proved a big hit with the fans – but on track Sheene faced stiff opposition. His rivals in the race included his own great mate Gary Nixon (the two-time AMA Champion riding an Erv Kanemoto-prepared Yamaha TZ750D), Skip Aksland (the 20-year-old Californian protégé of Kenny Roberts on a PJ1 Oils TZ750D, whose elder brother Bud was Kenny’s tuner), plus former Daytona 200 winner Gene Romero and Gary Scott – the latter two both former AMA National Champions, also riding the new four-cylinder 750cc Yamaha rocketships.

Sheene qualified on pole, but had to be content with third place after his choice of using soft-compound Michelin rubber cost him two seconds a lap and some lurid slides in the closing stages of the race led to him getting too close a view of the concrete walls that bordered the outside of the corners.

Aksland ended up taking victory in the race. He had learned his trade as an 11-year-old by racing on makeshift dirt tracks with Kenny and was just starting his third year of professional racing in ’77.

Aksland’s race average was 71.76mph and he crossed the line 18sec ahead of Romero. Then came Sheene and John Long (a Transtatlantic match race regular).

Gritty Gary Nixon battled through the pain barrier to claim fifth. The 36-year-old was suffering from two broken bones after a crash at Daytona, but defied doctors orders and cut the cast off his wrist in order to race. He crashed twice in practice at Long Beach after overshooting the hairpin braking zones – thanks to the pain from the wrist injury!